Somali Democratic Republic?

I was just trying to register my new address with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services online, and as part of ‘what country of citizenship’ question, I looked for ‘Somalia’ but apparently there are three different types of Somalia: regular, messed up, worst humanitarian crisis ‘Somali’, ‘Somaliland’, and a new country now called ‘Somali Democratic Republic’. It [...]

Here We Go Again

Just read a press release that announced the TFG and the opposition reached a “deal” in Djibouti. Ethiopia will withdraw its troops under two conditions: The fighting stops and a U.N. peacekeepers are deployed to Somalia, then, only then will Ethiopia draw its troops from Somalia AFTER the U.N. peacekeepers have already been on the [...]

Famine in Sight in Somalia

Woke up this morning, had a toasted sandwich and a coffee. I logged in online to read the day’s news. The catastrophes of Burma and China are still on the headlines but there is also Safia Ali’s story on the front page of the NYT’s website. The resident of Dagaari, central Somalia and mother of five is [...]

The Show Has Started & Ended

Another Somalia peace conference has begun in Djibouti over the weekend in which the U.N. is trying to bring both the TFG and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia for negotiation, but already the conference has been declared dead on arrival, as all the important players stayed home. Complicating matters, the United Nation envoy is meeting [...]

Cliff Hanger, Again!

The U.S. strike in Somalia on Thursday killing Aadan Ayro will leave us another cliff hanger for the “peace” process initiated by the U.N. and is supposed to take place ten days from now. Indeed, the TFG and Meles Zenawi are celebrating but does that make them the winner? Al-Shabaab is going to replace Ayro [...]

Worst of the Worst

“In many ways, Somalia is not a state at all, but more a lawless space between its neighbors and the sea. Sometimes it seems that if anything binds this country together, it is scar tissue.”
The quote above comes from a report by Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times, entitled, “Somalia’s Government Teeters on Collapse,” [...]

The Palestine of Africa

I’m sitting in the library of my school, very comfortable with music blasting from my laptop through my bluetooth headset wondering when I want to go eat something. Yet someone in Somalia that I know is starving, sick, or displaced by fighting. At this moment a lot of thoughts are going through my head - from regret, [...]

Biggest Joke on the Planet

 
The plight of Somalia is a joke. No, I have not lost my mind or abandoned my idealism. The fact is, it bothers me to see few people cause so much suffering and deaths. I still don’t understand why there is a civil war in Somalia. In every other civil war there is now, we [...]

Guess Where It was Taken

As a photography enthusiast, this photo in a news article caught my attention - everything from the light, the composure, and the angle but I was more surprised to learn where it was taken. Can you guess where?